Optus to triple Tasmanian 3G coverage

The nation’s number two telco Optus yesterday revealed it would invest $25 million in its 3G mobile network in Tasmania over the next two years, tripling the number of base stations in the state to over 100 and increasing the capacity of existing sites.

The network rollout will see over 45 towns for the first time gain access to a mobile provider other than Telstra, the telco said in a statement yesterday, with the rollout to mean that upwards of 96 percent of the Tasmanian population will be able to gain access to Optus’ Open Network. More than 80 new sites will be added. “With this significant expansion, we will be the only mobile carrier capable of challenging the incumbent’s network reach in Tasmania,” said Optus Networks managing director Gunther Ottendorfer.

It appears also that the Tasmanian Government has handed Optus a chunk of its mobile telecommunications spend. The Government kicked off an overhaul of its wide-ranging needs for telecommunications services in early November last year, although it has not yet announced winners from the services.

“The extent of the investment and the ability to meet customer expectations has provided the Tasmanian Government with the confidence in choosing Optus for mobile and mobile data services,” added Ottendorfer. The state has previously primarily used Telstra for most of its services.

It appears that much of the network rollout will take place utilising the 900MHz spectrum which Optus is using in regional areas, in preference to the 2100MHz spectrum used in metropolitan areas. The telco specifically highlighted upgrades to take place at its existing mobile sites in Devonport, Hobart and Launceston as part of the announcement.

In Optus statement – and at an associated launch event at an Optus store in Elizabeth St Mall in Hobart – Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings was positive about the rollout.

“Telecommunications has always been vital to keeping regional Tasmania connected, and that has never been truer than in the age of mobile phones, tablet computers and email,” Giddings said. “This announcement will increase the choice for Tasmanians who need to stay connected for work, education, or simply to stay in touch with their family.”

The news comes just weeks after Telstra itself revealed an ongoing investment in Tasmania to improve the state’s access to fixed and mobile broadband. The telco recently revealed the towns of Bridport and Dilston north of Launceston would receive new ADSL infrastructure.

In addition, Telstra Country Wide general manager for Northern Tasmania Michael Patterson said Telstra was also expanding its Next G mobile network across Tasmania – seeing to maintain “coverage supremacy” over competitors Vodafone and Optus. “We have a rollout schedule of new towers across the state of Tasmania, to ensure we maintain that coverage gap,” he said, noting the company was investing “something like $3 million a week” in infrastructure in Tasmania – “significant capex and opex budgets” to maintain the company’s significant footprint in the state.

The National Broadband Network Company, too, is currently focusing on rolling out fixed fibre-optic infrastructure in the state, with Tasmania being a key focus for early rollout stage plans.

Get our 'Best of the Week' newsletter on Fridays

Enterprise IT stories

If you have even a skin deep awareness of the structure of Australia’s superannuation industry, you’ll be aware that much of the underlying infrastructure used by many of the nation’s major funds is provided by a centralised group, Superpartners. One of the group’s main projects in recent years has been to dramatically update and modernise its IT platform — its version of a core banking platform overhaul. Unfortunately, the $250 million project has not precisely been going well.

This week it emerged that Peter Grant, the two-time former Queensland Whole of Government CIO (pictured), has joined well-regarded analyst firm Intelligent Business Research Services (IBRS). We’ve long had a high regard for IBRS, and so it’s fantastic to see such an experienced executive join its ranks.

The era of troublesome desk phones tied to physical locations is gradually coming to an end in many workplaces, with mobile phones becoming increasingly popular as organisations’ main method of voice telecommunications. But some groups are more advanced than others when it comes to adoption of the trend. One of those is Westpac.

Remember how twelve months ago, the Federal Government released a new cloud computing security and privacy directive which required departments and agencies to explicitly acquire the approval of the Attorney-General and the relevant portfolio minister before government data containing private information could be stored in offshore facilities? Remember how the policy was strongly criticised by Microsoft, Government CIOs and Delimiter? Well, it looks like the policy is about to be reversed.

In news from The Department of Disturbing Facts, iTNews revealed late last week that Western Australia’s Department of Education has run out of money halfway through the deployment of new fundamental IT infrastructure to the state’s schools.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has published an extensive article arguing that the Federal Government needed to do a better job of connecting with Australians via digital channels and that public sector IT projects needn’t cost the huge amounts that some have in the past.

New Zealand’s national Government announced a whole of government contract this morning for what it terms ‘Office Productivity as a Service’ services. This includes email and calendaring services, as well as file-sharing, mobility, instant messaging and collaboration services. The contract complements two existing contracts — Desktop as a Service and Enterprise Content Management as a Service.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has promoted an internal executive who joined the bank in September after a lengthy career at petroleum giant VP and IT services group Accenture to replace its outgoing chief information officer Michael Harte, who announced in early May that he would leave the bank.

Second-tier Australian bank and financial services group Suncorp today announced that its long-serving top technology executive Jeff Smith would leave to take up a senior role with IBM in the United States, in an announcement which marks the end of an era for the nation’s banking IT sector.

Most companies that live and breathe the online revolution are not tech startups, but smart smaller firms that use online tools to run their core business better: to cut costs, reach customers and suppliers, innovate and get more control. Many others, however, are falling behind, according to a new Grattan Institute discussion paper.